What is the difference between weather and climate?

I’m on my summer holidays and although I love Scotland, sometimes it’s nice to go somewhere with a warmer climate.

We work out what the climate in a place is by looking at the average weather for about 30 years, and seeing how warm or cold, rainy and windy it is during that time.

The climate is different depending on where you are in the world.

In Nigeria it’s usually very hot.

In Siberia it’s usually very cold.

In parts of New Zealand it’s very windy.

And in parts of India it’s very wet.

The climate across the world has always changed over hundreds, thousands, even millions of years.

600,000 years ago, parts of Britain used to be so warm, palm trees grew and hippos swam in the River Thames.

And 20,000 years ago, Britain was going through an ice age and woolly mammoths roamed the land.

These changes occurred naturally.

There are all sorts of reasons why the environment causes climate change. This is called a natural climate cycle.

But these days some of the change is because of the way humans have been burning fossil fuels to power our homes, factories and vehicles, which has caused lots of carbon dioxide to enter the atmosphere.

The carbon dioxide traps heat and is warming the planet faster than before.

This is called the greenhouse effect.

So maybe this year I’ll think a little more about the fuel I use and where I travel and stay in Scotland instead!